One Olmsted: Embrace diversity as an asset

Beam Project Type:
Planning
Project in
Concept
Phase

A new Olmsted County initiative is aiming to create a foundation of support to overcome disparities in services throughout the county.
A draft of a "One Olmsted" resolution has been making the rounds among some volunteer county boards, with tentative plans to seek support from the Olmsted County Board of Commissioners early next month.
The proclamation stating "the time is now to embrace diversity as an asset" strives to reaffirm the county's commitment to equity and acknowledging "every facet of human difference." It's a new take on existing practices.

A new Olmsted County initiative is aiming to create a foundation of support to overcome disparities in services throughout the county.

A draft of a "One Olmsted" resolution has been making the rounds among some volunteer county boards, with tentative plans to seek support from the Olmsted County Board of Commissioners early next month.

The proclamation stating "the time is now to embrace diversity as an asset" strives to reaffirm the county's commitment to equity and acknowledging "every facet of human difference." It's a new take on existing practices.

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Richard Devlin

"We have a lot of policies that already address this," County Administrator Richard Devlin said, noting the resolution reasserts those policies.

However, Commissioner Sheila Kiscaden noted part of the drive for the One Olmsted resolution stems from the attack on the San Bernardino public health training event on Dec. 2, 2015. She said local county staff feared similar attacks in the wake of the event and other national tensions, but rather than taking a defensive posture, department heads sought another approach.

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Paul Fleissner

Community Services Director Paul Fleissner obtained a proclamation from a colleague in Fairfax, Va., and sought to transform it for Olmsted County.

"I really like where it evolved," he said, regarding changes that were made as the document circulated among county staff and boards, as well as the Diversity Council.

The resolution points to the county's dedication to health, social and racial equity, citing an importance to provide all residents with access to county services.

Public Health Director Pete Giesen noted his department already implements many aspects identified in the resolution, but his staff continues to work toward addressing disparities that exist.

"It's something that just part of our mission in our department," he said, noting other departments have been addressing equity issues as well.

"Everybody needs to be healthy in a community, or we're all at risk," she said, pointing out disease can spread across societal boundaries once one group becomes ill.

Giesen said the impact will be felt throughout all county departments, noting the goal is to cover anyone who comes in contact with any Olmsted County services.

Fleissner said it provides a unique lens to look at how services are provided and will be used to build on what is being done and offer incentives to improve.

As the proposal has been reviewed by volunteer boards in the county, it's generated support with some voicing a desire to take it further.

"I would have loved to have seen some implementation procedure or some way of measuring," Human Rights Commission member Barry Skolnick said.

Giesen said an action plan would be ideal, but it's not ready yet. However, he noted the resolution could be used to leverage future efforts, if approved by county commissioners.

Community Services Advisory Board Chairman Jim Rustad noted the mere presence of the resolution likely will have an impact on county staff and the community.

"My hope is just by communicating it, it will get recognition and people will start adopting it," he said.

Having received a variety of suggested tweaks throughout the review process, the resolution is tentatively planned to be presented by chairs of the human rights commission and public health and community service advisory board during the April 4 county board meeting.

Complete Count 2020 representatives conducted a community briefing at 2018-06-21 CNG meeting on the importance and logistics of Olmsted County social and public agencies build out a network of helpers to ensure a complete count in 2020.

On Wednesday, June 13th, 2018 at 11:00 am, the Journey to Growth team, the City of Rochester and citizens of Rochester will gather in the City Hall Atrium for a special Signing Ceremony, designating Rochester as the first U.S. City to join the Council of Europe’s ICI (Intercultural Cities Initiative) program.

Community Beam (dmcbeam.org) is a registry of private and public resources (organizations, projects, initiatives, programs) that underpin economic and social developments of greater Rochester:

For the commercial sector, we tend to register startup activities (new companies and new commercial projects) that bring diversification and high-impact opportunities to the area.

For the non-profit sector, we wish to shine light on all the organizations and services that otherwise labor under relative obscurity.

Our hope is that dmcbeam.org will encourage cross-sector collaborations and creative solutions.

While there are a number of registries in the community, dmcbeam.org's distinct value is to pilot a database with a data structure and categorizations that answer the questions such as: What organizations or projects/programs in our community that have purported relevance with some of the over-arching focuses put forward by initiatives such as DMC, J2G and Health Improvements?

This database could be used as one of the ways to explore the capacities of the community. If you are someone on an exploratory journey to learn about the greater Rochester community. dmcbeam.org could be an interesting first step.

Definitions

The following defines the various project phases:

Available - a product, program or service is in production

Develop - program or application is being developed

Plan - idea is solid, stakeholders are identified, and there is strong commitment to go forward from all parties.

Concept Phase - idea scoped out with enough details to give an early sizing and/or to build a proof of concept demonstration